Nazanin Rafsanjani

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Nazanin Rafsanjani
Born
Iran
NationalityAmerican
OccupationProducer
Known forThe Rachel Maddow Show, Gimlet Media
SpouseAlex Blumberg

Nazanin Rafsanjani is an American television and radio producer. She was the head of new show development for Gimlet Media until 2020, and before that served as Gimlet's creative director and a senior producer for The Rachel Maddow Show.

Education[edit]

Rafsanjani received her bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and completed her master’s in journalism at Columbia University.[1]

Career[edit]

In 2006, Rafsanjani reported on the Caspian Sea region as a NPR-Bucksbaum International Reporting Fellow.[2] She was a producer at WNYC in 2010,[3] then worked for MSNBC as a senior producer for The Rachel Maddow Show. She has also contributed to This American Life.[4]

Rafsanjani was featured in the first season of Gimlet's podcast StartUp,[5] consulting with her husband Alex Blumberg as he launched a media company then called American Podcasting Corporation.[6] As the business grew, Rafsanjani elected to join the team to develop branded podcasts (podcasts produced by Gimlet on behalf of advertisers) as a source of revenue for the firm.[7][8] Consequently, Rafsanjani left her position at MSNBC in 2015 to join Gimlet as the creative director.[9][10]

The first branded podcast from Rafsanjani's four-person creative team at Gimlet was a six-episode series for eBay called Open for Business, which hit number one on the iTunes podcast chart.[11] She has been praised for the journalism and producing skills she brought to Gimlet's marketing projects,[12] hiring fellow journalists for her team at Gimlet Creative including Katelyn Bogucki from The Huffington Post and Frances Harlow from NPR's Planet Money.[13] Rafsanjani later became the head of new show development at Gimlet,[14] a role she continued to hold after Gimlet was sold to Spotify in 2019.[15][16]

Rafsanjani has served on the board of directors of Human Rights First since 2021.[1] Additionally, she is a member of the 2022-23 editorial board of the Brooklyn Law Review.[17]

Honors and awards[edit]

In 2013, Rafsanjani was nominated for an Emmy Award, with The Rachel Maddow Show team, for Outstanding News Discussion and Analysis.[18]

In 2018, she was named one of Fast Company's "Most Creative People in Business."[19]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Board Archives". Human Rights First. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  2. ^ "Iran's Pollution Worries Come by Air and Water". npr.org. 2007-01-30. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  3. ^ "Congress Weighs Laws Against Some Lawsuits". npr.org. 2010-04-02. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  4. ^ "Not Your Parents' Parent Trap". This American Life. 2017-12-12. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  5. ^ "Best Podcasts: October 19–25 - The Timbre". The Timbre. 26 October 2015. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  6. ^ Dean, Michelle (7 November 2015). "Alex Blumberg's podcast revolution is just beginning. NPR: this is your warning". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  7. ^ Pathak, Shareen (2 December 2015). "Latest in content marketing: brands make their own podcasts - Digiday". Digiday. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  8. ^ Owen, Laura Hazard (November 30, 2015). "How did the GE-branded podcast The Message hit No. 1 on iTunes? In part, by sounding nothing like an ad". Neiman Lab. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  9. ^ Levy, Ari (22 October 2019). "'Startup' podcast offers a rare fly-on-wall view of tech M&A after Gimlet's $200 million sale to Spotify". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  10. ^ Dean, Michelle (2015-11-07). "Alex Blumberg's podcast revolution is just beginning. NPR: this is your warning". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  11. ^ Mullin, Benjamin (20 June 2016). "Gimlet Creative, an early entrant to branded podcasting, is now open for business". Poynter. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  12. ^ Layton, Corey (January 20, 2016). "Podcast Pioneers: Where Audiences Choose to Listen to the Ads". AdAge. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  13. ^ Mullin, Benjamin (2016-06-20). "Gimlet Creative, an early entrant to branded podcasting, is now open for business". Poynter. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  14. ^ Dawn, Randee (2019-09-19). "Peak Storytelling Here as Podcasts, Short Form Ride New Wave". Variety. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  15. ^ Naomi (2019-09-26). "New Season of World-Renowned Therapist Esther Perel's 'Where Should We Begin?' Podcast to Launch on Spotify". Spotify. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  16. ^ Levy, Ari (22 October 2019). "'Startup' podcast offers a rare fly-on-wall view of tech M&A after Gimlet's $200 million sale to Spotify". CNBC. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  17. ^ "Brooklyn Law Review – 2022–2023 Editorial Board" (PDF). Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  18. ^ "EMMY Nominations for 10 News and Documentary alumni - NYU Journalism". NYU Journalism. 22 July 2013. Retrieved 15 July 2016.
  19. ^ "The most creative people in business in 2018". fastcompany.com. Retrieved 2023-04-20.

External links[edit]

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